Hijinks & Shenanigans but not much Mayhem@The Dark Side+Disney:Link to DL/Hawaii TR

[teekathepony]

Have you been able to do Mission Space? Sum of All Thrills is a little tighter than that. But if you are claustrophobic, then the experience really isn't for you! It is the same ride technology at Forbiden Journey at WWoHP, but the cars ("brooms") in that ride are open.

I can do Mission Space... but I always get in and panic a little until the ride actually starts (the part where the console comes toward you... yeah that makes my heart stop! ) Once the ride gets going I'm good, but I always feel like that's my limit and I'm afraid to push it. It's too bad too because it looks like a blast! I got to do the design your own rollercoaster in DisneyQuest though, and that was fun!

 

[Wood Nymph]

We love to take the monorail from MK to Epcot, too. We always stop at Club Cool on the way.

That is a really good photo of Mission Space that you took from the monorail. It looks really good from that perspective. I did that ride one time and almost had a panic attack. i'm claustrophobic and didn't know that the console closes down on you. It is the same reason I would never do Sum of all Thrills.

I hope the churros were hot and fresh after all that waiting around.

 

[saintstickets]

Thank you!

Some of my favorite pictures are food porn and I love sharing it here, since my family doesn't really "get it"

I feel your pain! How many times have we heard, "Will you hurry up and take the picture so I can eat?"

 

[natebenma]

I can do Mission Space... but I always get in and panic a little until the ride actually starts (the part where the console comes toward you... yeah that makes my heart stop! ) Once the ride gets going I'm good, but I always feel like that's my limit and I'm afraid to push it. It's too bad too because it looks like a blast! I got to do the design your own rollercoaster in DisneyQuest though, and that was fun!

If you are not entirely comfortable in Mission Space, I don't think I can recommend that you try Sum of All Thrills. Definitely cramped quarters!

We love to take the monorail from MK to Epcot, too. We always stop at Club Cool on the way.

That is a really good photo of Mission Space that you took from the monorail. It looks really good from that perspective. I did that ride one time and almost had a panic attack. i'm claustrophobic and didn't know that the console closes down on you. It is the same reason I would never do Sum of all Thrills.

I hope the churros were hot and fresh after all that waiting around.

Love the monorail from the MK to EP! We often make a stop at Club Cool when we do that, too.

Thanks for your comment about the M:S picture. The views are so great on the monorail loop.

The churros were good from what I recall. I think I only had a bite or two. But it was better than the churro I got on one of my first trips to EPCOT- a seagull swooped in and stole my churro (and scared me in the process)

I feel your pain! How many times have we heard, "Will you hurry up and take the picture so I can eat?"

My youngest, Ben, totally gets it and insists on taking pictures of his food. The other two, my husband and Nate, are not as easily convinced.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Great choices!!!

Big Thunder Mountain is my favorite MK ride. And it is not too "thrilly", just FUN!



RNR was Nate's threshold coaster- once he finally did this, there was no stopping him. There is almost nothing he won't ride now. Ben rode for the first time in July (age 12)
I sometimes dream that this will happen but then I look at his wee face and think "nope not gonna be" There's always the youngest son to pin my hopes on
EE: Exciting, Great Scenery!

Soarin- Nothing too scary there. Everyone will love it!

Any normal person would LOVE Soarin but my hubby cant do it because he suffers from vertigo This always put Connor off trying it

If you are not entirely comfortable in Mission Space, I don't think I can recommend that you try Sum of All Thrills. Definitely cramped quarters!






Love the monorail from the MK to EP! We often make a stop at Club Cool when we do that, too.

Thanks for your comment about the M:S picture. The views are so great on the monorail loop.

The churros were good from what I recall. I think I only had a bite or two. But it was better than the churro I got on one of my first trips to EPCOT- a seagull swooped in and stole my churro (and scared me in the process)



EEK-I bet it scared you!!

I like the fat churros better than those skinny, skittery ones


My youngest, Ben, totally gets it and insists on taking pictures of his food. The other two, my husband and Nate, are not as easily convinced.

Had to laugh at the food photography comments

 

[tiggerfan77]

Nice pictures from the monorail! Love the hidden ToT shot in Mexico! I've never noticed that before but I guess that was the whole point!
Never had the churros in Mexico before. They look yummy so I guess I need to add to my must try list.
Can't wait to here what your favorite meal was!

 

[natebenma]

Any normal person would LOVE Soarin but my hubby cant do it because he suffers from vertigo This always put Connor off trying it


EEK-I bet it scared you!!
I like the fat churros better than those skinny, skittery ones

You have been on Soarin haven't you? This should not be a problem for your son(s), but I can understand why your husband skips it.

Yes, I screamed like a girl when the seagull swooped in on me. I haven't had to defend my snacks from wildlife since, but I do have to fend off Ben on occasion. I agree- the fat churros are better.

Nice pictures from the monorail! Love the hidden ToT shot in Mexico! I've never noticed that before but I guess that was the whole point!
Never had the churros in Mexico before. They look yummy so I guess I need to add to my must try list.
Can't wait to here what your favorite meal was!

I love the little tidbits you pick up from the DIS- I don't know if I would ever have noticed ToT behind Morocco if someone else hadn't mentioned it.

I'll try to find a chance to post about my favorite meal today or tomorrow.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Hi Dee- when you posted your latest installment we were just hitting the road for our DRIVE to FL.
We are having a fabulous time! The weather wasn't that great the past couple of days- cloudy and high 60s low 70s. I know who am I to complain!!?? I was just hoping the boys could go swimming but the pool at the condo isn't heated ( we miss the resorts for that)
It's gonna get warmer every day now so maybe before we leave they can. We're hitting the beach tomorrow to soak up the sun. sorry to hijack your TR.

That's cool info about ToT and Morocco. Your pics from the monorail are so clear you'd never know you were looking through glass. I wish it was as easy to get my family to do more photo pass pics. I'm lucky to get one a trip now. All they do is complain about how many we have.
Love your way back to the BC. The monorail's a ride too, right?!!! I love the monorail!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks for the info on the Tower of Terror and Morocco having the same color scheme so that the two blend in with each other. I had no idea.

Oh wait, I forgot to say cool picture from the monorail. It's been quite some time since we've taken the monorail into Epcot.

 

[natebenma]

Hi Dee- when you posted your latest installment we were just hitting the road for our DRIVE to FL.
We are having a fabulous time! The weather wasn't that great the past couple of days- cloudy and high 60s low 70s. I know who am I to complain!!?? I was just hoping the boys could go swimming but the pool at the condo isn't heated ( we miss the resorts for that)
It's gonna get warmer every day now so maybe before we leave they can. We're hitting the beach tomorrow to soak up the sun. sorry to hijack your TR.

That's cool info about ToT and Morocco. Your pics from the monorail are so clear you'd never know you were looking through glass. I wish it was as easy to get my family to do more photo pass pics. I'm lucky to get one a trip now. All they do is complain about how many we have.
Love your way back to the BC. The monorail's a ride too, right?!!! I love the monorail!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Hijack away! I love hearing about your trips.

I'm glad to hear you expect some warmer weather to arrive. Have fun at the beach!



Glad you liked the monorail pictures. I was pretty pleased with them.

The monorail is our favorite way to get from MK to BC. Not the quickest, though, but we can always find stuff to do.

Thanks for the info on the Tower of Terror and Morocco having the same color scheme so that the two blend in with each other. I had no idea.

Oh wait, I forgot to say cool picture from the monorail. It's been quite some time since we've taken the monorail into Epcot.

Didn't Disney do an awesome job getting ToT to blend in?

Thanks for the photo comment.

 

[natebenma]

As I mentioned in my last post, my favorite meal of the trip was coming up. The where we were dining was not as important as who would be joining us. The best part of the meal was not the food (although everything was excellent) but it was all about our captivating dining companion.

Most of you know that over the past several years I have formed a very close friendship with Teena, who works part-time as a greeter at the Beach Club. My family met her on our very first trip to the Beach Club in July 2009, and although we communicate frequently by email, text and occasionally by phone, I had not seen her since that very first trip!

In 2010, Teena was away visiting her daughter in Las Vegas during our trip. She was coming in to work on the day we left, and our original schedule would have allowed us to spend a couple of hours visiting, but then #$@^& Airtran changed our flights and we had to leave before seeing her.

In 2011, we only spent one day in the Disney bubble, at MK and I think Teena was away again during that time.

In 2012, I was at Disney for Nate’s class trip, but we didn’t have any free time to sneak away to visit my friend.

I was really looking forward to seeing Teena and giving her a real live hug.

And this:









A photo album filled with pictures of Teena’s granddaughter Lily. How, exactly, does someone who is not related to Teena/Lily get all of these photos???

No. I am not a stalker.

But I am Teena’s official archivist and photo-poster.

Since Lily’s birth, Teena has sent me many pictures which I have posted on the BC/YC FAQ thread, or on the Princess Lily Goes Live thread. I had a huge collection to choose from and I had an offer from Shutterfly for 101 free photos. I knew Teena has lots of photos of Lily on her phone and Facebook, but I suspected that she didn’t have very many printed out.

This was actually the second photo album I had put together for Teena. If you look in the picture of us above, she is holding a book with a blue, flowered cover. Before the first trip when we met Teena, I contacted a bunch of DISers who were regular posters to the BC/YC FAQ thread and asked them if they would provide pictures of their families for Teena. After convincing them that I was not, in fact, a creeper, I was able to put together a little souvenir of people who had met or would be meeting Teena during their trips.



Our dinner reservations were at 6:30. We were chilling in our room for a bit and when the concierge lounge opened for evening appetizers at 5:00 we went over for a pre-dinner nibble. Purely for research purposes. Official Beach and Yacht Club FAQ thread business and all that.


Crab Rangoons



Spinach Pie



Gazpacho







We had reservations for the Captain’s Grille at the Yacht Club. This was our second time dining here. In 2010, we chose this as our arrival night dinner because of the proximity to our resort room and the casual, uncrowded atmosphere. We enjoyed our meal on our previous trip.

As far as theming, this certainly isn’t one of the most iconic places on property- it is tasteful and has a lot of nautical touches, but it doesn’t scream “Disney!” when you walk in the door. However, one of the “new” additions to the restaurant is a set of pictures featuring a sailboat that moves from one picture to the next.











Pretty cool!

Teena was waiting for us when we arrived and we exchanged long overdue hugs!

We asked one of the hostesses to take a couple of pictures for us:









During out meal, another DISer, catho72 (Cathy) stopped by our table (actually visited from the hallway) to say hello when she was passing by.


Food Porn! (Of course)


Pot-Braised Mussels and Clams
Tomato-Fennel Broth with Toasted Foccacia



The guys all shared this as an appetizer. I don’t think I tried any because I was too busy gabbing with my friend.


Chef’s Pasta – Braised short rib, arugula and tagliatelle pasta
Both Mark and I ordered this, which is extremely unusual because we typically order different entrées and share. But this sounded so good- and it was- we each got our own




Ben got the Crab Cakes



Nate ordered the New York Strip



Teena ordered this

Pan-roasted Chicken Breast - With Risotto




For dessert, Teena got the Hazelnut Gianduja Chocolate Cake and Mark and I split one, even though I don’t know what “Gianduja” means. But I know what chocolate means, and that is good enough for me!







Ben ordered the Angel Food Cake with Seasonal Fruit, and Nate got the Key Lime Tart.








We applied Teena’s Table in Wonderland card to our meal, which saved us $32.27. With the 18% gratuity that is automatically included, our meal total was $166.53.

Dinner was magical! As I mentioned earlier, everything looked great and all of the food I tasted was excellent, but I could have been eating shoe leather and I still would have had a fantastic meal!

I loved catching up with my friend. Teena told the most amusing stories and we laughed all through the meal. After we had parted ways and we were walking back to the room, Nate commented with a bit of a surprised tone: “That was a really fun time”. Not “Having dinner with your friend was tolerable”, but a sincere statement that he was glad we had dinner with Teena that night. It warmed my heart that my skeptical teen, and the rest of my family, truly enjoyed our dining experience with a very dear friend.

Dinner was over by 8 or so. Teena left to drive back home and we did not have plans for the evening. We had intentionally left this evening unscheduled. We could head over to Hollywood Studios. Traipse over to EPCOT. Heck, we could go close down MK if we wanted to. Or, we could go back to the room and crash.


Up Next: Day Ain’t Over Yet

 

[MEK]

Dee - that was a great update! How nice that you have formed such a special friendship with Teena. And its even better that you finally got to meet up with her after several years.

I love the photo book.

And your food looks amazing - especially those crab cakes - yum!

The moving boat is a nice detail.

 

[dtr_angel]

I can see why it was your favorite meal of the trip! It sounds like you had a really great time together. The food looked really good too. We've never eaten there before but it's definitely on our list to try when we hopefully/finally stay at the YC or BC (maybe December!)

I cannot believe how much your boys grew up in 4 years, wow!

 

[tiggerfan77]

What an awesome story! Disney hires some of the best and friendlies people in the world. I love that a chance meeting has turned into a wonderful friendship The photo album for Teena is so sweet!
I have not had the pleasure of eating at the Captain's Grille but there food there looks delicious and I love that picture with the moving sailboat!

 

[KatMark]

Dee, what a fun and wonderfully warm update. I'm so glad you got to see your friend after all of these years, Teena. We did not see Teena when we stayed at the Beach Club.

Dinner looks yummy (and we enjoyed our meal at Captain's Grille for dinner in December).

 

[JanetMom]

Thanks for such a nice update - a post that warms all of our hearts!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Dee, I found myself smiling throughout the entire update. I love the fact that our love for Disney can form such tight wonderful friendships. I know that you and Teena were overjoyed that you finally got to see one another again. It sounds like the rest of your group had a good time as well.

 

[MickeyT]

Just because I haven't been posting doesn't mean I haven't been following.

Love my BC family!

 

[Queila]

Which performer would appear on YOUR nametag?

Tough choice between a-ha and New Kids on the Block

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Lovely update
Good food and great company what could be better